STRQ: Adventures of the two
by rocketmce
Summary: You've read the normal SI's before. Person get's teleported to Remnant, they go to Beacon, save Pyrrha, Kill Cinder, the works. But What happens when the people who get teleported are there LONG before beacon? So long, in fact, They're an entire generation early! Well, that's what happens to James and Markus, join them as they try to fix this mess of a world!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Funny story, this is the fourth fic in this series. It's also the only one we didn't have any backlogs for when we wrote it.**

 **Robocop3301: Yeah, right now we're kinda just getting these written down so we don't forget them. Also we're not british so if any of y'all are british we don't mean any harm by this and you can make fun of us Americans it is only fair.**

 **Disclaimer: Still don't own RWBY :(**

 **Beta: Robocop3301, the best there ever was if I do say so myself. And I do.**

[-]

Well… We got ROBed… that's the only way to put it.

ROB: Random Omniscient Being and/or illegitimate child.

Yeah, the McGuffin used by fanfiction writers to have their OC's, Self inserts, or just characters from another universe stuck into the new one.

Myself and my best friend were just minding our own business, when the stupidly overpowered and bored being colloquially known as ROB decided that we would be the victims of his newest playdate.

We had no warning, and were given little to no explanation other than that we were getting "New forms that could handle the universe we would be in!" Stupid ROB.

Anyway, at this moment, myself and James - My best friend - were falling. To the left, you could see darkness, and to the right… Total, blackness.

My stomach rumbled, a clear sign that we had been falling for a while, "I'm hungry…" I muttered.

James, on the flipside, was still screaming… though he wasn't panicked, he seemed to be doing it simply for the novelty of the fact.

I looked over to him, "Would you stop screaming?!" I yelled at him.

"Sure. My throat is really, really, tired now." James yelled back.

I facepalmed, "You really didn't need to yell for so long. Nor do we need to yell to communicate, its silent out here." I remarked.

"I was trying to figure out how much time has passed based on how much my throat hurt." James said.

"And your conclusion?" I asked.

"A really long time." He said.

Suddenly, a bright light consumed us. We hit water… Hard. The resounding smack was heard for miles, and many people who had thought about doing belly flops decided in that moment it was probably a bad idea.

We quickly surfaced, gasping for air. Luckily, treading water was not a skill either of us lacked.

"James! You ok?!" I called out, spinning in the water to try and locate him.

"You mean besides the mother of all belly flops, sure." James said back as I found him.

He wasn't far, and I barely swam at all before I reached him, "Ok, Where are we?" I asked.

Before he could answer, we heard a very loud horn akin to that of a cargo freighters fog horn. We turned, and saw that it was indeed a huge ship carrying large amounts of crates.

"SWIM FOR YOUR LIVES!" James yelled as he began furiously swimming out of the way. For myself, I quickly followed after him.

The large boat slowly passed us, with many of the crew looking over the railing, some running back and forth. Eventually, they threw a large red and white ring, which the two of us went for immediately. Once we had a firm grip on it, we signaled the crew, and they started to pull us up.

As they were pulling us up we began to create a cover story as for why we were in the middle of the ocean. Without a boat nearby. We eventually reached the top of the boat, with the crew pulling us over the railing. And I'll be honest, the first thing I noticed, was that I was at crotch level with most of the crew… Well… that couldn't be good.

"You kids alright?" One of the crewman asked, a man with brown hair and… _dog ears_ of all things coming out of the top of his head!

I stared at him for a bit, slightly dumbfounded, and kind of insulted at him calling me a kid. Luckily for me, James answered instead of me.

"We're not kids!" he yelled, before clamping his mouth shut at hearing his own voice.

This, at least, seemed to make the crewman chuckle more than anything, "Sure you aren't, my mistake. Can you two tell me why you were in the middle of the ocean?"

"Our boat sank." I said, marveling at my voices pitch, "It hit a big iceberg, and there was an explosion, and it sank." What can I say? The Titanic was a thing people.

The Crewman seemed a bit confused, turning to his comrade, "Grimm attack do yah think?" He asked, ignoring our story for the moment.

The other crewman, a man with a quite magnificent beard, stroked said beard, "It's definitely possible. It'd explain why their this far out." he said.

I turned to James, "Are they ignoring us?" I asked him.

"I think they are old chap." James he said in a british accent.

I laughed slightly, "Righty oh, let's give the lads a proper greetin' then!"

The three crewmen had seemed to notice our drastic change in accent, and all turned to us confused, "Are you two alright?" He asked.

We in turn responded; "Quite so my good man!" And the two of us charged between the legs of two crewmen, turned around, and 'kicked them in the rump!' as the british would say.

The two we kicked cried out in pain, and the third turned around to try and catch us. We turned out to be to fast for him, and we started running across the deck of the ship. I won't go into detail about the whole chase, due to it lasting probably a good hour. Needless to say, beverly hills chase scenes ain't got nothing on us.

Turns out, the time we spent running from the crew, was also enough time for the ship to dock at port! We paused to laugh ourselves to the floor, before getting up and running off the deck of the ship and onto the pier. A few of the crewmen came after us, cursing as they went. They didn't seem too committed though, as we lost them in the streets fairly easily.

"Well, that was fun." I remarked.

"You know Markus, I don't think those guys like us so much." James said with a smile.

The two of us shared a laugh, glad that we had gotten some enjoyment out of the situation. Unfortunately, the realization that we really didn't have any money or food to our names hit us rather hard.

"We should probably try to find some form of shelter, food and maybe a job." James explained.

I nodded, "True, and as much as I hate to admit it, there's no telling how old we are." I noted.

"Well, considering that we come up to most people's waists. We're either children or dwarves" James also noted, "That's probably something we should look into."

We spent a large portion of our day walking around the town aimlessly. We managed to learn the town's name, Rivermouth, and that the town was in Mistral. The name Mistral also rang a few bells, telling us just where that ROB had sent us. We were in the world of RWBY. Suddenly, the animal features made a lot more sense.

After recovering from our initial shock, we decided the best idea was to go to a shop of some kind, and hope for the best.

"Excuse me." I asked the man behind the counter.

The man looked down at us, eyebrows raised, "And what do you two want?" He asked.

"We have no money, no food, no parents to speak of, and we are basically hyper-intelligent street urchins. You wouldn't have any work for us would you?" I asked.

To his credit, the man recovered from his stupor rather quickly, "I, er… what?" Well, 'recover' may be a strong word.

"If you don't have any work for us, like as a courier, or something like that, we can just go somewhere else."

The man finally regained his wits, "I see… Well, ah, I do have a package to be delivered to a friend of mine a ways away from here. If you could do that I could give you some food I suppose…" He said hesitantly.

"On it!" James said with a nod as he came from the back of the store, holding a package in his hands, "Forty-first South Sand street, the Dead Man's Drink. I'm guessing that's a tavern."

The shopkeeper again stood dumbfounded, amazed that the young man could get behind the counter and into the back room without him noticing, "Er, yes, that's the right one. Ask for a man named Hawk, he'll be the one to give it to. He'll be the one to pay you as well." He explained.

"Will do!" And with that, we walked off.

[-]

Hawk Branwen was bored. That wasn't a good thing for anyone he came into contact with him. The cause of his boredom was the fact that so far, only one person in this town had yet to pay their protection fees. Now, this was normally a good thing, but it meant that he didn't get to raid any of the shops that were under his payment.

Soon, two young boys walked up to him. The two couldn't have been older than eleven years old. Both had brown hair, with fairly tanned skin and ragged clothes. They didn't seem armed, so the bandit wasn't particularly worried for his safety at all.

"Package for a Mr. Hawk?" The taller of the children asked.

The man nodded, "That's me, what is it?" he asked. Under normal circumstances, he would have just snatched the package without even acknowledging the kids. However, he was getting a very… Different, vibe coming from these two.

The child shrugged, "Wasn't paying too much attention to what it was, just took it to the Dead Man's Drink. We were told to give it to a man named Hawk that matched your description." He stated simply, holding the package out towards him.

Hawk grabbed the small box a bit hesitantly. The address was the last place that had yet to pay their protection fees. Hawk groaned slightly, before turning to the two kids, "Well, I guess I should thank you two. Saved the guy's hide."

The two kids nodded, "So where's our payment?" The taller one asked.

Hawk was surprised that the kid would even ask that. He was about to tell him to go back where they came from, before a deathly chill went down his spine. Hawk's semblance was acting up, and that could only mean a few things. Either an assassin was about to try and kill him, or these kids were more important than he thought.

"Out of curiosity… What's your name kid?" He asked.

"I'm Markus," The taller one said, "And that's James." He said pointing to the shorter one who inclined his head at the introduction.

Hawk nodded, looking at them again, examining them closer. Markus was definitely the bigger of the two, and he'd wager older as well. There were few differences in how they actually looked, and if Hawk were to bet money on it, he'd guess the two were siblings.

"And ah, where are your parents?" He asked.

The two children shuffled a bit, "Well… that's a touchy question… Sufficed to say, we're on our own." Markus answered.

Hawk nodded, understanding. Orphans weren't a rare occurrence outside of the kingdoms' cities, and two brothers wandering around on their own wasn't all that strange. Still…

"How about you two stick with me for a while? If you don't have anywhere else that is…" He offered, "Name's Hawk Branwen by he way."

The two boys seemed to perk up at the mention of his name, so much so that he almost wondered if they had recognized his name. That seemed unlikely, but not impossible to him however.

"Where would we go?" Markus asked.

Hawk chuckled, "I've got a group outside of the city. We move around a lot, but it'd be better than living off scraps here in the town." He explained.

Markus and James looked at each other, seemed to think about it for a bit, before turning back to him, "That sounds good to us." They answered in unison.

Hawk smiled, the chill leaving his spine finally. What was it about these two kids that had him so on edge, but willing to take them in just like that?

"Alright, the two of you can stay in my room upstairs for the night, and we can leave tomorrow morning." He answered.

Before the two boys could respond, both their stomachs growled quite loudly. This caused Hawk to laugh, before he called over a waiter to give the two boys some food. He'd pay for it of course.

[-]

The rest of the day passed rather quickly. Markus and myself had gotten a large amount of food, courtesy of one Hawk Branwen… If we weren't sure before, we were now. We were definitely on Remnant. Granted, I can't say either of us recognized the mountain of a man that Hawk was, but it's not like Raven and Qrow didn't have ANY family right? The name 'Hawk' Also gave off several cues.

Regardless, we had full bellies, and were sitting on beds that were quite comfortable. At present, Hawk wasn't in the room, giving the two of us time to discuss our situation, and plans for the future.

"So, basically what has happened is, We got transported to Remnant thanks to ROB."

"Right."

"We ended up in this town in Mistral where Hawk Branwen - assumed relative of Qrow and Raven - just happened to be."

"Yep."

"Then we got… invited…? into the Branwen Tribe and now we're here waiting the night out before we leave for the tribe's camp tomorrow. Am I right so far?" James asked.

"So far, yeah." Markus responded.

"Okay so what's the plan for what we're going to do once we are part of the Tribe? Obviously, we'll be going to Beacon, but that is a while ahead of us and we need to focus on tomorrow." James Explained.

"Not to mention, we look like eleven year olds. I don't think Beacon accepts people this young." Markus noted.

"Well I'm sure we'll look twenty by the time we're seventeen due to either height or lots of facial hair." James said.

"Yeah that's true… Still, we've got no idea how long between now and beacon actually is! Canon could start in twenty years, or it could start in two! For all we know, it's started already!"

"We'll improvise." James simply.

Markus sighed in defeat, knowing that at the moment, there was little the two could do that would have any real effect.

"Still, we're going to the Branwen tribe for crying out loud, I don't think their going to have the best of reputations." Markus countered.

"Qrow and Raven got in didn't they?" James replied.

"Yeah, but that was before they went to Beacon. If they've gone to there by now, don't you think that Ozpin would be wary of anyone coming to Beacon from a wandering tribe in Mistral?"

"Qrow still works for Ozpin. So, he knows he's got a fifty-fifty shot of getting at least one of us to stay and considering that Qrow and Raven are two of the most dangerous people alive save the people that work for Salem, and Salem herself, it's not exactly that bad of an idea considering that the Branwen tribe still at least fights against Salem for Humanity even if it is only because it is in their own interest to do so." James countered long windedly.

Markus sighed, flopping back onto the bed. It was true that the group of Raven's bandits wasn't exactly on Salem's side, even considering they did work for her. For the piece of utter garbage that Volume five was, it at least progressed the story _somewhat_.

[-]

The two boys got a good deal of sleep that night, with Hawk waking them up around eight o'clock that morning. They ate breakfast eagerly, before Hawk told them it was time to head out. Hawk carried a large pack on his shoulder, and a large revolver at his hip. His black hair waving in the breeze.

Markus and James walked close behind, carrying smaller packs that Hawk had designated for them to carry. They walked for a good three hours, with Hawk telling the two about the dangers of walking around the wilds alone, as well as what his 'camp' would be like.

They eventually stopped for a break, with the two children digging into some of the food and water they had brought with them. Hawk explained that they had around fifteen minutes to do whatever, before they headed out again. He himself elected to wander off for the duration of the time.

"Well, the camp seems to be a lot farther than I thought it would be." Markus told his companion.

"Well, It's not like they would camp really close to a town or city and say 'here I am please call the authorities so they can come and blow us to kingdom come'." James said sarcastically.

Markus chuckled, "That's true. Still, the average human walks how many miles an hour? Three, four? Something like that?" He asked, "We've been walking for like, three hours now."

"Well walking for a day isn't all that bad. It means there is plenty of distance between the bandit camp and the authorities that it would take a day for them to get to where we are, and that would be if they knew our location first. They would have to organize a sweep around a location and that would give us plenty of time to escape." James said in explanation, while using the power of Logic.

Markus shrugged, "That's true. Still, what if they had an airship? They could cover double the ground in half the time." He countered.

"Tree cover and other environmental effects would delay them, and a big airship would give us plenty of advance warning as they would do a search when there is a clear sky, thus giving their position away and allowing us to get out of the area." James explained again showing why he is the tactical guy.

Hawk soon appeared from the treeline, causing the two to stop talking and jump at his sudden appearance, "Technically, James is right. An airship would give us plenty of time to react." he said with a smile.

"Smart kid. Course, what I'm more curious about, how in dust's name did you figure out about me and the Branwen tribe?" He asked, his smile turning into a frown.

"Well, you constantly have the merchants, tradesmen, and craftsmen pay you in town, and so as street rats people basically ignored us. They would sometimes say distasteful things about how the Branwen Tribe would cut into their profits, complaining about how you were extorting and threatening them. It wasn't too big of a leap of logic when you introduced yourself as Hawk Branwen that you were a part of said tribe." James bluffed. The two hadn't actually heard any such thing, but James doubted that would matter all that much.

The mans smile returned again, larger this time, "You two really are smart aren't you? Who knew we had such a reputation."

"Yeah, but you have to learn fast when you live on the streets or you die simple as that." James lied since they had never actually spent a night on the streets, they just looked like they did.

Well, Markus might have, him and his brothers did that stuff for "funsies". Yeah, they were probably a bit crazy now that James thought about it.

The Branwen member let out a hearty laugh, clearly amused, "Well, would you look at that. Two kiddo's who actually use their heads. I think you'll fit in nicely at the Branwen Tribe."

The two dimensional travelers suddenly felt that they may have bitten off a bit more than they could chew… then again it could just have been breakfast disagreeing with them.

[-]

The Branwen tribes main camp was… Not what the one in the later volumes of the show looked like. Unlike the show, there were no makeshift walls around the camp, which was made out of several tents, a few fire pits, and multiple sleeping mats surrounding the fire pits. Several children looked to be running around the camp, and a few larger men appeared to be standing guard, most likely looking for any Grimm that might approach.

There was a river flowing nearby, and there looked to be a few women washing clothes or cooking supplies in it. The place almost looked like a campsite in an apocalypse.

One of the guards soon spotted the tree travelers as they walked toward the camp. The man was tall, dark skinned, with a shaved head. His clothes were rather plain, but he carried a large rifle in his hands, giving off a dangerous aura.

"Hawk! Good to see your back!" The man called to the Branwen.

Hawk smiled and walked up to the man, giving him a bro hug, "Good to be back." he greeted.

The guard looked down at us as he seemed to examine his friend, "And who are these two? They don't look any older than yours." He asked Hawk.

Hawk shrugged, "They delivered some of the money that was owed. They didn't have anywhere to go, so I decided to take 'em in." He answered.

"Huh, Who knew you had a soft spot for kids!" Hawks friend jabbed with a laugh.

"Yeah, whatever. How are the two rascals doing? They didn't miss me did they?" Hawk asked.

The guard snorted, "Yeah, like she would even be capable of missing you. The kid's got more spunk than her brother, that's for sure. Think he got a bit anxious when you left. Seems to have calmed down though." He explained.

Hawk nodded, "Alrighty then, I'll take these two over and introduce them. They could use some friends their own age." He said, before motioning for the two kids to follow him.

They walked for bit, heading to the far end of the camp, where the largest tent in the whole place stood. A woman stood outside, and smiled as Hawk walked up.

"Hawk! You're back early!" She remarked as she ran up to the man and hugged him.

"Haha, missed you to. Where are the kids? I got some friends for them." He asked.

The woman who the two kids assumed to be Hawks wife turned her gaze to the two, "Oh! That's wonderful! Qrow's been dying to have some kids around that aren't his sister."

The two kids froze instantly, looking at each other, eyes seeming to jump out of their skulls, but luckily the adults didn't seem to notice. 

"Qrow! Raven! Your father has some friends for you to play with! Come on out!" the woman called.

Quickly, two children emerged from the large tent. While it wasn't quite the same, the two kids with black hair, pale skin, and red eyes were, without a shadow of a doubt, Qrow and Raven Branwen.

"Qrow, Raven, I'd like you to meet James and Markus, they'll be staying with us for a while." Hawk explained.

"Hi there! I'm Raven, Which of you is Markus, and which is James?" She asked in a bubbly voice.

Neither of the two boys answered initially, as they recovered from their initial shock. Thankfully, Markus came to his senses fast enough that it wasn't awkward, "Uh, Hi, I'm Markus. That's James." He said pointing to the person beside him.

Raven smiled, holding out her hand to Markus, "Nice to meet you Markus! That's my brother Qrow!" She said pointing to the male Branwen twin.

[-]

 **A/N: GASP! What a twist!**

 **Robocop3301: It really wasn't. It was kinda obvious after you introduced Hawk.**

 **Rocketmce: Shush you, It was a twist when I came up with it.**

 **Robocop3301: Never, I have the freedom of speech and I'm nowhere near you and I know it so you can't force me to do anything.**

 **Rocketmce: *Glares* I know where you live.**

 **Robocop3301: In the words of every TRUE American. I have a Shotgun with your name on it.**

 **Rocketmce: Anywho, enough banter. As you can see people, this is the FORTH story that I've published with the 'Adventures of the two' tag. Truth be told, I have a lot of these stories planned and/or already written.**

 **The updates will be inconsistent at best, and totally random at worst, so keep that in mind (I have two fics that I keep updated semi-consistently, and those tend to take priority)**

 **In any case, I hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Screw Time-skips!

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever, nor will I likely ever, own RWBY.**

 **Beta: Robocop3301**

Chapter 2: Screw Timeskips!

Turns out, Raven and Qrow are incredibly mischievous. They are not at all the brutal, somewhat evil people we know and hate in canon. For one thing, the second we got into the camp and were introduced, Raven challenged both of us to a spar…

… needless to say, we got our behinds handed to us on a silver platter. The fight went as such:

"OH GOD WHY, WHY DID YOU LET US COME TO THIS HELL, WHYYHYYYYHYYY!" James yelled as he ran around like a chicken without its head after it was proven that the twins were way superior to them in the art of fighting. He fortunately proved superior in the art of dodging bullets.

"THAT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BEND THAT WAY!" Markus yelled in agony.

"That's what the last person said before I took their arm off!" said Raven with a sadistic grin as she held Markus' arm behind his back.

"SERPENTINE! SERPENTINE!" James yelled as he dodged Qrow's hail of bullets. He jumped behind a big rock and took out a rifle and said, "Eat lead in Hell!" and shot back at Qrow, making him trip over Raven and Markus as he dodged.

The second he was free of Ravens grip, Markus rolled to the side, crawling to the edge of the arena.

"Oh no you don't!" Qrow said as he recovered his bearings and targeted Markus, running in his direction.

"Oh yes, he does!" James retorted as he focused fire on Qrow while keeping an eye on Raven, Breaker of Bones and Flayer of Flesh.

Qrow was forced to dodge James' bullets, losing his pace on Markus, but still getting hit by two of the bullets, the shots draining his aura.

"Yes! Thank you rifling course." James said triumphantly before getting a sword to the chest and launched backward into a forest.

"And that's a ring-out by Raven!" Hawk announced, watching from an elevated chair.

Markus meanwhile was 'sneaking up' behind Qrow while he was watching his sister beat the crap out of James. He succeeded in getting about five feet behind him before Qrow turned around, shooting Markus in the face.

"Ow…" Markus complained as his aura was brought down significantly.

"And with that, Markus' aura is down to the single digits. I think they've been beaten enough."

"My limbs are made of spaghetti…" Markus said in delusion.

The next few weeks went about as well as one could expect, with Markus and James getting beaten down by the Branwen twins. Their aura had been unlocked not a day after they arrived, with their 'spars' following shortly after.

Qrow and Raven did not yet have their weapons, with Qrow having a basic shotgun and Raven having a sword. James went for a rifle, whereas Markus went with a hand ax. Still, the skill gap between the two pairs was painfully obvious, and Hawk was determined to close that gap. Luckily for him, the two universal travelers were more than eager to learn.

Months passed, the group grew in maturity a-… well, Qrow and Raven grew in maturity, the other two kinda just stagnated. Aside from that, they all grew in size as well, with Qrow actually being the shortest of the group.

"Come on! I'm still not taller than her!" Qrow yelled in false agony.

Raven only laughed, lording her height over her brothers head as much as she could. Markus and James however…

"You're taller than me," Markus observed.

"Aye, I am."

"That's not how this is supposed to work…"

"Definitely not."

For a bit of context, in their past life, Markus was a good foot taller than James, and when they discovered that James was taller than Markus… well, they weren't exactly sure what to think.

A month later, and Markus had officially regained his position as the tallest one in the room.

"Ah, that's better…" Markus said in a satisfied tone as he surpassed James in height.

James, on the other hand, was sitting in the corner with mock tears in his eyes.

Even more time passed, people trained, and the two boys started to notice a pattern in the bandit camp. Every few days a group would head out, with Hawk at the head, and when they came back in the next day or so, they would come with supplies, food, money, or even people occasionally. Though those people were rarely there for more than a day before they were taken out of the camp again.

"You know, I knew what we were getting into when we joined in a bandit camp, but do you ever wonder where they get all this stuff?" Markus asked casually.

"I mean, they raid villages right?" James asked back.

"Well, Raven does when she's in charge, but do these guys? The most they come back with is a cart of food and maybe a few weapons."

"Where do you think she got it from? Also, its called 'Protection Tax'." James answered.

Markus looked up from his bunk at James, glaring slightly, "Really? You're using the terminology now?" He asked sarcastically.

"When do I not?" James said making a very valid point.

Markus shrugged, "True enough I suppose." he said before going back to lying on his bunk. His rest would not last, however, as a dark red portal opened above him and a body fell through.

"AHK!" Markus cried in pain as Raven fell on top of him, "Raven what the heck!?"

Raven winced slightly, "Sorry!... I found my semblance though!" She said excitedly after her half-hearted apology.

Markus actually perked up at hearing this, "Really? Great!... What's it do?" He asked. Though he knew exactly what her semblance did, he wanted to know if she'd figured it out yet.

"I can make portals!" she said victoriously.

"Neat! So you can teleport anywhere you want?" He asked.

She chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of her head embarrassed, "Well, not exactly… Every time I've teleported it goes to either dad or Qrow, and this is the first time its gone to you."

Markus sighed, "So you can't control where it goes?" he asked.

Raven shook her head, a frown covering her features.

"Well, at least you unlocked it, all that's left to do is figure out how to use it." James encouraged with a congratulatory smile.

James' words brought a smile to her face, with Markus reiterating the encouragement.

[-]

"Hya! Wha! Bam!"

"Why is he shouting?" Raven asked.

"Shush, this is important to him." Markus chastised her.

"Despite the fact he's making a fool of himself?"

"Hey, don't let him catch on… I'm enjoying the show." James gave his two cents on the matter, while recording Qrow with his scroll (Blackmail get!).

"GRRAAH!" Qrow cut the training dummy in half, his greatsword barely registering the hit, "Ha! I love this thing!" He said while admiring his new weapon.

" _He's just like his niece!"_ James whispered conspiratorially quietly next to Markus, the words barely reaching his ears.

Markus shook his head with a grin, before moving forward to pat Qrow on the back, "Y'know, with that thing, you're probably gonna get a lot of compensation jokes." He remarked.

Qrow rolled his eyes, "We've lived together for how long? You know their jokes won't hold any ground." He said with a smirk.

"Hey! Keep it PG please!" James called out.

"You're one to talk!" Qrow called back.

"You'll understand one day!"

"Screw you too!"

"Sorry, but I don't swing that way!"

While the two were having their little chat, Markus and Raven were laughing hysterically. "Their bickering like an old married couple…" Raven said between breaths.

"Still don't swing that way!" interjected James.

"I know! I've turned you down how many times?!" She yelled.

"I haven't asked you out at all! You just keep kicking me in my crotch!" James said exasperated.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that!"

Markus once again shook his head at his friends' antics. He almost wondered why Raven left team STRQ… Scratch that, he does still wonder.

An hour passed, with the group recovering from their shenanigans, and the other three getting to show off their weapons. Raven used a blood-red odachi, with dust charges inside the sheath. James had built a very simple looking longsword, with canals carved into the blade filled with dust. That was in combination with the pistol he kept in a holster at his hip with a knife sheathed next to it. Markus went for twin hand axes, which could shift and fire basic shotgun shells.

"So, what are we gonna do next?" Markus asked.

"Well… dad mentioned that that we needed to know how to deal with huntsmen that get to close." Raven remarked.

"Well, how would we deal with that?" James asked, "Cause I was just gonna wait till he was in face-stabbing range."

"James. Calm your bloodlust." Markus criticized.

"What bloodlust?" He said, eyeing a very suspicous looking bandit.

"Regardless, dad suggested the four of us go to a combat school. Preferably not Haven, mostly 'cause everyone there already knows who we are." She explained.

"Well, why not Beacon? It is supposedly the best and the world, so that would be where the strongest in the world go and obviously we are the strongest so we should go there." James said, a bit of boast in his voice.

Markus facepalmed.

"Well, I guess Beacon's not a bad option." Qrow remarked, "It bein' on another continent and all."

"It's settled then!" everyone heard Hawk call out behind them, "The lot of you are going to Beacon!"

[-]

A year. It took us a year to get transcripts for Beacon. Convenient, since we had decided we would go there around the age of sixteen, and less convenient because we were bored out of our minds for that year.

Fortunately, Raven and Qrow had gone with the outfits they'd had in canon, with the exception of Qrows outfit looking newer and Raven forgoing the grimm-mask.

For myself, I wore a blue sleeveless shirt with a grey vest and blue jeans, as well as grey shoes. Aside from that, a silver chain hung from my pocket attached to my belt loop and wallet.

James wore a light armored red jacket with vambraces on his arms. Underneath that he wore a grey shirt. He wore black cargo pants and red combat boots with armor that went up to his knees.

Beacon apparently still had airships, even a good twenty years before the canon timeline. Myself and James had talked about what we would do extensively, as by the time canon rolled around we would be way older than any of the main cast… We might even cause some of them to not be born.

Anywho, the airship went towards Beacons airdocks, landing rougher than I would have expected. The four of us exited the airship, making our way to Beacons courtyard. For the record, the show did no justice to the actual thing.

"This place is massive!" James remarked, leaning back and looking at Beacon tower, "It's almost as big as-" I elbowed him in the rib, keeping him from finishing his sentence.

"Almost as big as what? Come on, we know you were just _waiting_ to compliment me." Qrow said with a smirk.

"Complimenting you would be an insult to this masterpiece of engineering as well as in general to any object. There is a reason you have to compensate with your sword." James retorted while shooting Markus a glare for bringing this on him.

Markus only turned to the side, whistling quietly.

Raven rolled her eyes, grabbing her twin by the ear and dragging him off, "Come on! We'll be late for orientation!" She said.

James smirked, "She's going the wrong way." He whispered to me.

I raised an eyebrow, "And you have your semblance active now because..."

"Can't I have a bit of fun now and again? Now let's move before she finds out."

I sighed, following him as he walked off, presumably to the orientation hall. His semblance was funny like that. He could see the best path available to him in any given physical situation, keywords being physical and available. In combat, if he is out-classed or overwhelmed, his semblance can only help him mitigate the damage. His semblance won't help him with emotional or mental problems either, as it simply won't activate.

We walked for a solid three minutes, before we did indeed find the orientation hall. There were actually chairs as well, something canon didn't have if memory serves. Regardless, we sat down, not looking at who we were sitting next to. In hindsight, it was probably the best possible option. At that moment, it felt like we had just stepped on a landmine.

"OOOH! Tai! Look!" a high-pitched, girly voice said.

The two of us looked to the left, and our eyes bulged out of our heads. My first thought was, 'how on earth did Ruby go back in time!?' before I quickly corrected myself and immediately assumed it was Summer. Unfortunately for me, my brain did not connect to James' mouth.

"Ruby?" He said to himself, before clamping his mouth shut. I facepalmed. He wasn't usually loose-lipped.

Summer cocked her head to the side, "Who?" She asked.

James shook his head, "Sorry, you just, ah, look like someone I know," He lied quickly. "The name is James, what is yours?"

I shook my head, "Smooth. Real smooth."

Summer, for her part, giggled, "Summer Rose! Huntress in training and professional cookie expert!" she said with a grin.

"So, where'd you come from?" James asked, recovering from his blunder.

Summer smiled, "I'm from an island off the coast, it's kinda small though and there's only a few people there." She explained.

Tai rolled his eyes, "It's called Patch, and over a fifteen hundred isn't 'a few'." he countered.

Summer giggled, and I winced at just how _close_ her voice was to Ruby's. Seriously! The future rose was basically a carbon copy

"That's cool. We come from Mistral we lived with a nomadic group and wandered around from place to place." James said telling the truth from a certain point of view.

I raised an eyebrow at his explanation, before I gave my own two cents on the matter, "To be more specific, a wandering band of mercenaries." I said, a bit closer to the truth.

Summer tilted her head to the side in such an adorable way that I'm not even sure how to use words to describe it, "Mercenaries?" she asks.

"Essentially unofficial huntsmen. People come to us asking for help, we help them." I said with a grin.

That and extortion. We weren't exactly the most generous folk. Anyway, before we could continue our conversation, none other than Ozpin-mc-liesalot stepped out onto the stage… and gave the EXACT same speech as he did in canon. No wonder it sounds so bland and emotionless.

One thing I did notice was that Glynda was nowhere to be seen, but instead, a woman in black cargo pants and a sweatshirt stepped forward.

"The lot o' you will be spending the night in the ballroom, but don't get comfy! Initiations tomorrow!" she said with a thicker accent that I was unable to place.

As students started filing out of the meeting hall, we eventually found Raven and Qrow, who had met up with - wouldn'tcha know it, Glynda Goodwitch and Bartholomew Oobleck! Both of which looked _far_ different from their modern counterparts.

Glynda for example, did not have the purple cape nor the skirt, instead going for black pants and purple long-coat with a plain-looking white shirt underneath. She still held her riding crop at her side, and her glasses were still present, though her hair was longer and had been done in a ponytail much like my own.

Oobleck was much closer to his future self, with the few noticeable changes being his smoother, less hyperactive movement and the fact that his clothes were far less disheveled.

"Markus! James! Where the heck did you two go!? We had to actually ask for help!" Raven chastised us.

James snickered while I just rolled my eyes. Beacon was going to be fun.

[-]

Salem watched the young scorpion faunus through her seer Grimm, eyeing how he dealt with the Grimm surrounding him. He certainly wasn't the most stable of people… not when he kept referring to her as his 'goddess'. She would admit it wasn't the worse that she had been called… and it did have a nice ring to it.

She idly wondered if he would be as useful as he claimed he would be, and whether or not she could use the traits he so elegantly claimed would be useful. He was no stranger to fighting humans, his combat technique proved that much. But where he had learned that...

Her train of thought was broken when she received a call for attention from one of her seers. They very rarely called out to her, only doing so when there was an emergency. Looking into its orb of flesh, she saw what the creature had been determined to show her.

The Fall maiden had been found, and she was more than capable of being… Captured, or for lack of a better word. Detained. She grinned with malice, the thought of moving her plans forward at such an early time…

She looked back to Tyrian, a smile plastered on her face. She may just have the mission he had been craving…

[-]

 **A/N: Well, a shorter chapter, but one packed with content nonetheless! Thank you to those of you who followed, favorited, and reviewed this story! It's a lot of fun to write, and some of the conversations between myself and Robocop can get a little zany when discussing future plans.**

 **Anywho, Because of the overall response to these "Adventures of the Two" stories, and boy are there a lot of them, I think this one and the Warhammer one will take precedent. The Warhammer one because I have so many ideas for it my head hurts, and this one because it seems to be the most popular.**

 **The other RWBY one may actually come off of the site, as well as the Overlord one, as both need reworks. I wrote the RWBY one almost two years ago for crying out loud!**

 **Reviews!**

 **Soda-fiedPsycho:** 1) Undecided, as I generally write that kind of thing as I go, but me revealing their weapons here should help with that.

2) Most of that should be answered in this chapter.

3) he's already here!

Hope this chapter lived up to the last one!

 **Spfitestarter:** Glad you like it! My plan is to continue with the self-awareness factor, as well as flipping peoples expectations on their heads.

 **Bwburke94:** He probably couldn't. And as far as the accent goes, I'm not that culturally insensitive ya wanker!

 **Obsidian Prime:** Eh, I wasn't exactly going for subtlety.

 **EsX-DrIfTeR:** Hope this lived up to expectations!

 **That's it for the reviews. Any last words Robocop?**

 **Nothing other than I hope you don't stick me with another Canoness Amelia.**

 ***Chuckles darkly* Don't you worry…**

 **Robocop: I need an adult.**

 **Rocket: I am an adult.**


	3. Teamwork! Yey!

**A/N: To those, it may concern, the reason this story is titled STRQ is that of the timeline, not the team. When I first started writing this story, I didn't have the outline that I do now. So, forgive me for the misleading title.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. Had you asked me two years ago, I'd have wished I did, now Rooster teeth is doing a decent job so I'll let them be.**

 **Beta: Robocop3301**

[-]

The ballroom turned out to be rather spacious, with enough room to hold at least a few thousand people if need be. Which is why it puzzled me why there were only a hundred students here at the absolute _most_. Now granted it's still a huntsman academy, I doubt there are thousands of people lining the street to get in, but only just under a hundred? The canon show made it look so crowded too…

"-and then Bart spilled his coffee all over my skirt!" Raven yelled with a huff. We had been following the future professors through Beacon towards the ballroom, and Raven had been oh so graciously retelling the story of they had met.

"Again I do apologize Ms. Branwen, and I will make it up to you, so you needn't worry!" He said, albeit slower than his Doctoral counterpart.

Raven only groaned, "Just forget it, we'll be put on teams as you said, I just have to make sure I'm not on yours." She said indignantly.

I and James shared a glance, shrugged, and went to go set up our equipment for the night. We'd contemplated shifting teams around intentionally, but that likely wasn't going to happen of our own volition due to us not knowing how team STRQ formed in the first place. We decided to let the R.O.B. handle this one, despite our distaste for the figure.

We set up in the far corner of the room, away from the majority of the students. We, unfortunately, failed in our attempt to distance ourselves from people, however, as a certain white-hooded figure and a blonde approached our set up.

Looking up from his book, and me looking up from my journal, we saw that Summer and Tai had both approached us with little awareness of their surroundings. Summer set her backpack next to my sleeping bag and began unrolling her own, with Tai following suit on the other side of her.

"And why, may I ask, are the two of you set up all the way over here?" I asked with a blank look.

Tai sighed and Summer puffed her cheeks, "You two were over here all alone, I figured since you were the first people we met we might as well sleep together!" She said innocently, before clamping her hands around her mouth, "I-I mean not, sleep together sleep together, I mean… like…"

"Sleeping in the same room?" Tai offered, helping out his shorter friend.

She sighed, hanging her head and pointing to the blonde, "What he said."

I and James shared a laugh. It wasn't exactly a compelling argument, but neither of us really had any reason to deny her, "Why not? We could use some company." I said.

Summer sighed in relief before she finished unrolling her sleeping bag and plopped down onto it, "So, what'cha reading?" She asked pointing at James' book.

He looked up from it slightly, "History of the Great War. It really is fascinating," he said as he turned the page, "Did you know that the king of Vale made an unlimited amount of pardons to any Atlesian soldiers that defected to Vale? All of which now sit in a locked vault beneath Vale city hall?"

Everyone present shook their heads. He simply shrugged, before continuing his reading. I rolled my eyes, even before we got ROBed James had always been a history buff. Not that I was any slouch either, but he'd be able to tell you a whole lot of things a lot of college teachers wouldn't know.

Though the pardons were an interesting tidbit of information.

"In any case, Initiation is tomorrow. Any of you put any thought into teams?" I asked.

"Is it just me or does that sound like we're being inducted into a cult?" James cut in.

Summer rubbed the back of her head, "Well… I mean, there's you two so… wait, cult?"

I facepalmed.

"What's this about a cult? Sounds fun." a black haired future bird person said as she walked up.

"Yes, James was just telling us about his future cult he's going to start." I explained.

Everyone looked to James, who for some mysterious reason had a tinfoil hat on.

"What?" he asked, looking up from his book again.

"Um… what's with the…"

"The heck are you wearing?" Qrow asks.

"The hat protects. Glory to the Hat!" He said ominously.

I and James took a single look at each other before we both burst out laughing, leaving everyone around us quite confuzzled.

"Ok, go get your beauty sleep. Everybody knows you need it." James said sarcastically.

Raven rolled her eyes and started walking back to her sleeping setup, Qrow following close behind her. Summer and Tai meanwhile set up next to us, and we all went to sleep not all that much later.

[-]

The next morning was rather uneventful, with breakfast being served in the cafeteria before everyone headed to the cliffs just like in canon. It appeared as though initiation hadn't changed a bit in the twenty years between now and canon, considering the metal plates fixed underneath us.

Once Ozpin finished his speech - one blatantly identical to canon - we were launched from the platforms, and into the Emerald forest.

James immediately started angling himself, obviously using his semblance. I decided to focus my efforts on not dying here. Drawing my axes, I positioned myself in a position where I could spiral down a tree trunk in a similar fashion to the way Ren did in the show.

Turns out, it was an easy trick to pull off thanks to the absolutely crazy training Hawk put us through, and I found myself on the ground in a few short seconds. Looking at my surroundings, I decided to head in the general direction of the ruins. James and I had decided before it even started that we would be on the same team, but we wouldn't put any hindrance on who our partners would be.

If we got someone from future canon, so be it. If we somehow manage to break up team STRQ from day one, so be it. Us being here probably screwed up any chance we had of keeping canon… well, canon, at all.

Considering we had basically grown up with the Branwen twins, we had probably screwed over quite a lot. Of course, if we had any say in the matter, Raven would never leave Taiyang, and Ozpin would never be a manipulative son of a Grimm.

In any case, I walked through the emerald forest, whistling as I went. It was rather calm, and even after five minutes of walking, I still hadn't seen any signs of Grimm, though it sounded as though several students had come into contact with the beasts already.

I continued to move through the forest, looking for anyone that would be a good partner. My work paid off when I found someone with a white cloak and a bladed whip wrapped around a beowolf's neck. Summer continued her assault, not even realizing I was there. The Grimm struggled as it tried to pull the weapon from its neck, but it turned out to be futile as Summer gave it a good yank, decapitating the Grimm, her whip retracting into a sword form.

She gave a long sigh, before turning on her heel to face me, her face forming a wide grin the second we made eye contact.

"So, we're teammates then!" She said excitedly.

I chuckled, "I suppose we are. That was a good display though, where'd you learn to do that?" I asked, gesturing to the currently fading Grimm.

She chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her neck, "My uh, my dad taught me." She explained sheepishly.

I laughed, "Well good on him! He must be really good at fighting if he taught you that!" I said in jest, trying to keep my thoughts about Summer's family from showing on my face. The show never said anything about grandparents, though that could just as easily be something that no one considered.

Summer smiled, a slightly somber one at that, "Yeah, yeah he was…" She said solemnly.

Any sense of jest I had felt in that moment died. I had lost people before, long before I ever came to Remnant, and the was Summer said the word 'was' spoke volumes. Her dad was likely dead all things considered, and judging by her fighting skills, he probably died on the battlefield. In any case, I had officially screwed over canon now. Yay.

"Well, I'd guess our best option would be to head towards the ruin. What do you think?" I asked.

Summer shrugged, "I don't exactly have any better idea, let's go!"

And the beginning of a great and terrible adventure began… filled to the brim with conflict, misery, happiness, and memes.

[-]

"You know, I never thought it'd be chess pieces of all thing's that the headmaster would use," Glynda said as she and James stood among the temple ruins, "I mean I guess it makes sense, but why not something else?"

James sighed. It turned out that younger Glynda Goodwitch was apparently much more inquisitive than adult headmistress Glynda. "Maybe our headmaster is a bit of a symbolic type." James states with exasperation.

Glynda shrugged before eyeing several of the pieces. She hesitates slightly before pointing at the queen piece, "What do you think, should we-"

She barely got in a word as James rushed over and picked up the Black Queen piece, stroking it and looking around, a grin plastered on his face, "We're taking the queen." he said.

Glynda blinked, shook her head, and sighed. She correctly feared that she was going to have to deal with this kind of behavior in the future.

[-]

Raven Branwen cursed as she cut yet another branch out of the way. She was used to Qrow's incessant banter, she was comfortable with Markus' ridiculous commentary, for goodness sake she put up with James' absurd schemes! But this!? She was supposed to put up with THIS for four grimm-forsaken years!?

"I must say Raven, this forest really is extravagant, have you ever seen such life!" The green-haired student asked.

"Yes. Yes I have. I grew up in a forest." She said through gritted teeth.

Oobleck gasped, "My goodness! You actually grew up in such conditions? Fascinating! You must have such an appreciation for the wonders of such a place!" He said with a grin.

Raven felt that she may snap and kill the man one day.

One day...

[-]

Taiyang Xiao-Long was a simple man. He had simple tastes, he had simple skills, and his hopes and dreams were simple things. He also took simple joy in the torture of one Qrow Branwen.

"And then I said, wouldn't it be just un- _bear-_ able if I went and killed that Ursa?"

Qrow groaned. He had laughed at the first few puns Tai had made. He even chuckled at the next dozen. But for the love of all that was holy, Taiyang Xiao-Long would not shut up! Pun after pun, bad joke after bad joke, it never came to an end!

Qrow sliced a tree in half, attempting to keep himself calm. He dreaded having to live with Tai at all, let alone four years.

"Look, Tai, I get that you're a comedian and all, but could you lay off the puns? You're making my head hurt." Qrow said with a groan.

Tai blinked, "But I thought you liked my puns?"

[-]

Ozpin frowned as he watched the screen in front of him. It had only been about ten years since he and his host had fully merged, but he still felt some of his thoughts drift from his past. He didn't even remember what his name was in his last life, but he was content with the name he had now. It helped that a friend from his past life was helping him.

"You know Oz, some of these kids might actually make the cut." The woman beside him stated.

Ozpin hummed, neglecting to make a comment of his own. His attention was currently focused on the four Branwen children.

It was obvious enough that they were not all directly related, Raven and Qrow being siblings, with Markus and James being their cousins. Still, the fact that all four of them enrolled at the same time was… mildly troubling. It didn't help that Markus and James had gone for the Black Queen pieces as quickly as they did.

It wasn't strange that they might want to be on the same team as one another, but the fact that James actually went straight for the piece, with Michael doing the same soon after, it made him slightly suspicious. Had _she_ made a move? Were the Branwen's somehow connected to her? He could only speculate.

It was a risk, that much was sure, but until she made a move that would link her to them, he could do nothing. If he did do something and was proven wrong, it could spell disaster for his current reputation. He might even have to wait a century to rebuild it, waiting until the generations had passed enough for him to take a public presence.

It would not be the first time he had done such a thing, but it was never a comfortable decision to make.

In the meantime, however, he had team names to come up with, and a ceremony to attend.

[-]

"Taiyang Xiao-Long, Raven Branwen, Qrow Branwen, and Bartholomew Oobleck, the four of you chose the white bishop pieces, and shall be known as team TRBO, led by Taiyang Xiao-Long." Ozpin said with a warm smile.

The crowd cheered, and Tai himself smiled. Who knew that he actually qualified to be a team leader? As the newly named team TRBO exited the stage, the next four students walked out onto the stage.

"Glynda Goodwitch, Summer Rose, James Branwen, and Markus Branwen. The four of you chose the Black Queen pieces," His eyes met those of the Branwens, "And shall henceforth be known as team GRJM. Lead by Glynda Goodwitch."

Murmurs flooded through the crowd, some tried to start the clapping again, but those attempts soon died out of awkwardness. Glynda and Summer both shuffled their feet uncomfortably, clearly not altogether unsatisfied with the team name, but it was certainly not what they had expected.

But it was not their reactions Ozpin was after. No, he looked towards the two Branwens. Both of whom were grinning from ear to ear.

[-]

 **A/N: What's this!? A chapter!? Yes indeed! For those of you who only read this story of mine, I am not dead! My time has just been eaten up by my other stories, the Mass Effect Trilogy, and College. You should probably thank Robocop3301 (Your Welcome), as he is the one who pushed me to write this. Had he not done so, I might not have gotten around to writing this for a good while.**

 **Also, the team names are pronounced Grimm (GRJM) and Turbo (TRBO). I and Robocop actually spent a good long while coming up with those, and the former actually just so happened to coincide with some of our plans for the future oh so perfectly!**


End file.
